Sunday, October 09, 2016

[The Life of Shaun #537] #ImWithHer

"Don't tell me 'gender isn't a factor' when Hillary Clinton is more despised for being cheated on than Trump is despised for cheating."

- Rachel Held Evans

It will come as no surprise who I am supporting in this presidential election. I've been with her since I cast my ballot for her as New York's senator in 2000. I voted for her in the primaries in 2008, and have already done my part by absentee ballot to turn Nevada blue this year (as well as legalise marijuana, and require background checks for all gun sales).

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I wasn't at all surprised that Trump got the Republican nomination. The GOP has been on a straight-line path from George W. Bush through Sarah Palin right to Trump. If it hadn't been Trump this election, it would have been someone like Trump in another.

America is changing, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with that. They remember the hegemony of the post-WWII era when all you had to do to be at the top of the global heap was be American and white, and they want that back. That's not to say that there aren't real grievances that need addressing; America spends far too much on weapons and tax policies that favour the wealthy, and far too little on the education and health of its people. One look around the audience at a Trump rally will show you that this is not what unites his supporters.

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Hillary Clinton is not perfect, no candidate is. But her imperfections grafted onto a male candidate would never provoke the vitriol and scorn that she has endured since entering public life. She is smart, dedicated, and she is a very good politician. She's probably the best-qualified candidate ever to run for this office, and she has accomplished all this on the most unequal of playing fields, under the relentless scrutiny of the twenty-four-hour news cycle.

As Trump stumbles from one embarassment to the next, I hope that more and more people realise that he is not fit to be on the same stage as Hillary Clinton, let alone be President of the United States. As the NY Times summarised, "A new biography portrays [him] as a clownish, deceitful narcissist who took control of a powerful nation thanks to slick propaganda and a dysfunctional political elite that failed to block his rise". Oh wait - that was about Hitler.